Introduction To The Course ‘Writing And Study Skills’ (BEGS 183)
Welcome to this course! This is probably going to be amongst the most important courses
that you will ever do because it will skill you in many aspects that are important to you in
your academic life and later in your life at the workplace. It lays the foundations for good
writing skills and equips you with tools to constantly refine your own writing processes. It
consists of 3 blocks and has 11 units. It is awarded 4 credits.
Before we begin writing, we need to critically reflect on our experiences, our belief
structures, our understanding of various issues, and so on. The first unit ‘Developing critical,
analytical, and interpretive thinking skills’ will enable you to look critically and closely at
aspects of your thinking and writing and that of others. This will greatly enhance your writing
ability. Units 2 and 3 will improve your vocabulary and revise aspects of grammar and
punctuation which create problems for you when you write. In other words, the first Block
helps you in ‘Improving the Basics’.
Block 2 ‘Writing Effectively’ helps you with the basic strategies that any writer needs when
writing a satisfactory piece of writing. Unit 1 of this block, “The basics of writing” helps you
to reflect on your purpose of writing, planning your work, researching appropriately and
thinking about who your readers are likely to be. In other words, it takes you through the
entire process of writing. Unit 2: “Developing different types of paragraphs”, concentrates
on writing paragraphs and gives you practice in writing different types of paragraphs. Unit 3
helps you organise different genres of composition. The last unit, “Different types of writing”
is a revision of all the writing activities that you normally perform as a student.
Block 3 ‘Note Taking’ is about study skills which are very important for you in your
academic life. How to take and make notes, how to summarise class lectures as well as
articles from journals and books and how to intelligently use this information to prepare for
examinations – all these are emphasised in this cluster of four units. We assure you, if you
read through this material thoroughly, you will be able to greatly improve your writing and
study skills.
The units are as follows:
Block 1: Improving the basics
Unit 1: Developing critical, analytical and interpretive thinking skills
Unit 2: Enhancing vocabulary
Unit 3: Improving grammar and punctuation skills
Block 2: Writing effectively
Unit 1: The basics of writing
Unit 2: Developing different types of paragraphs
Unit 3: Writing a composition
Unit 4: Different types of writing
Block 3: Note Taking
Unit 1: Learning study skills
Unit 2: Techniques of note taking: Main and subordinate points
Unit 3: Techniques of note taking: Use of tables and diagrams
Unit 4: Making effective summaries
